Observing the Observers: How Participants Contribute Data to iNaturalist and Implications for Biodiversity Science
Observing the Observers: How Participants Contribute Data to iNaturalist and Implications for Biodiversity Science
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DOI：
10.1093/biosci/biab093
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发表时间：
2021-09-08
期刊：
影响因子：
10.1
通讯作者：
Hurlbert, Allen H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Di Cecco, Grace J.;Barve, Vijay;Hurlbert, Allen H.
公民科学数据的可用性导致生物多样性科学的应用越来越多。iNaturalist是一个广泛使用的平台，它提供了全球用户群提交的数百万份数字担保观察结果。这些观察记录包括日期和地点，但不包含关于取样过程的任何信息。因此，抽样偏差必须从数据本身推断出来。在本文中，我们研究了从2008年平台推出到2019年底iNaturalist观测的空间和时间偏差。我们还根据个人活动水平和分类专业化来描述平台上的用户行为。我们发现，在分类级别上，用户通常专注于特定的群体，特别是植物或昆虫，很少对同一物种进行两次观察。生物多样性科学家在使用iNaturalist数据之前应该考虑用户行为是否会导致分析中的系统性偏差。
The availability of citizen science data has resulted in growing applications in biodiversity science. One widely used platform, iNaturalist, provides millions of digitally vouchered observations submitted by a global user base. These observation records include a date and a location but otherwise do not contain any information about the sampling process. As a result, sampling biases must be inferred from the data themselves. In the present article, we examine spatial and temporal biases in iNaturalist observations from the platform's launch in 2008 through the end of 2019. We also characterize user behavior on the platform in terms of individual activity level and taxonomic specialization. We found that, at the level of taxonomic class, the users typically specialized on a particular group, especially plants or insects, and rarely made observations of the same species twice. Biodiversity scientists should consider whether user behavior results in systematic biases in their analyses before using iNaturalist data.